"A symbol of the way the central authorities will behave towards Christians". With these words, mgr. Padovese, apostolic vicar of Anatolia and president of the Turkish Bishops Conference, presents the battle the Turkish episcopacy (along with the German episcopacy and the Holy See) is fighting to ask that, in the year that celebrates the two-thousandth anniversary of Saint Paul’s birth, the Church of Tarsus (the city in which the Apostle of the People was born) go back to the Christian cult. "It has been asked on several occasions by the Bishops Conference explains to SIR mgr. Padovese – that the Church of Tarsus, that has now been converted into a museum, should be granted to all the pilgrims who will go to Tarsus. We have been made several promises and reassurances but so far we have only been granted to put a cross inside that building-cum-museum and not to have the entrance ticket paid for, but only by the groups who book their visit beforehand. Honestly, that seems to be quite little, compared with what we had been told beforehand by several local and national authorities". ” “
